A bill laying the grounds for the establishment of a specialized jurisdiction court in Cyprus to exclusively handle primary residence foreclosures issues should be approved by the Cabinet on Thursday.
But Finance Ministry’s George Pantelis has clarified that the foreclosure procedure for mortgaged properties constituting a main residence worth up to €350,000 will not be halted because of the borrower’s appeal to the special court.
And that is exactly the difference between the draft bill and the proposal signed by Opposition parties Akel, Elam, Edek, Dipa and the Greens as well as by three MPs of pro-government centre Diko.
Their proposal allows borrowers to obtain a court order to set aside the foreclosure procedure in order to examine issues such as the possible existence of abusive charges and disagreement on the amount of the debt.
However, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Cyprus have disagreed with this proposal arguing that the changes provide the possibility of circumventing the process through the courts for all non-performing loans.
NPL’s in Cyprus today amount to around €25 billion.
The Ministry and CBC also argued that the delay in administering justice could render the foreclosure process practically ineffective.
